2016 Postmortem

DonViejo

(60,536 posts) Wed Aug 17, 2016, 02:27 PM Aug 2016

In 2006 Interview, Trump Demanded US Troops Leave Iraq—Even if Chaos and ISIS-Like Violence Occurred

Now he blames Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Sad!

DAVID CORN AUG. 16, 2016 12:12 PM

Last week, Donald Trump repeatedly asserted that President Barack Obama was the "founder" of ISIS and blasted Hillary Clinton as a "co-founder" of the terror group that has taken over large swaths of Iraq and Syria. But Obama was not in the White House and Clinton was not secretary of state when ISIS originated.

When a conservative radio host on Thursday asked if Trump meant that the Obama administration had "created the vacuum" in the region that allowed ISIS to grow, the GOP nominee stuck to his nonsensical statement: "No, I meant he's the founder of ISIS." Next, Trump claimed he was being sarcastic. Then at a campaign rally, he added, "But not that sarcastic." It was a very Trumpian couple of days. And on Monday, with a speech on national security that Trump read off a teleprompter, he had a chance to declare what he really thought about Obama, Clinton, and ISIS. After repeating the lie that he had opposed the Iraq War before the invasion, Trump did not restate his "founder" claim, but he said that because of Obama and Clinton, "Iraq is in chaos, and ISIS is on the loose." He added, "the Obama-Clinton foreign policy has unleashed ISIS." He insisted that Obama's withdrawal of US troops from Iraq (which actually was compelled by an agreement reached with the Iraqi government by President George W. Bush) "led directly to the rise of ISIS."

Here's the problem for Trump—if being wildly inconsistent and attacking an opponent for supposedly holding a position that Trump himself once advocated is a problem: 10 years ago, Trump called for a complete US withdrawal of troops from Iraq and indicated that he didn't give a damn if this led to civil war and greater violence there. He even predicted that such a move would cause the rise of "vicious" forces in Iraq. But Trump believed this would not be the United States' problem. That is, Trump was ardently in favor of the very actions that he now decries and for which he wrongfully blames Obama and Clinton.

In a 2006 CNBC interview, Trump was asked to critique Bush's performance in the White House. Trump immediately brought up the Iraq War:

I would like to see our president get us out of the war [in Iraq] because the war is a total catastrophe. I would like to see President Bush get us out of Iraq, which is a total mess, a total catastrophe, and it's not going to get any better. It's only going to get worse. It's a mess.

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